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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Someone hacked my blog, and is redirecting my traffic!

"I want to read your Disneyland post, but every time I got to your blog, it takes me to some weird website. I don't know if it's my computer, or you."

I ran out to the computer, and tried it myself. I typed in lifeinthepitts.com, crossed my fingers, hit enter...

...and it redirected me. Bastards.

I quickly changed my password, and started searching on google.

It was disheartening.

"...I don't know who my webhost is!"

"...Crap, I haven't backed up my blog in months!!"

"...But I haven't added any new widgets!!!"

Things were looking grim.

I decided to start with something simple. I went into my design page, and deleted everything in my sidebar. Once all the widgets were gone, even the seemingly harmless ones, I swallowed hard. Then I typed in my url, and hit enter...

...and it worked just fine.

Oh yeah. I owned that malware! There's no stopping the Helena. See this dance? That's a victory dance. Because you lost, widget. That wasn't luck, my friend. That was SKILL.

...Ok, it was luck.

I got lucky. I was lucky that it was just some sneaky widget hacking my site, and now things are back to normal.

Next time I might not be so fortunate.

When I was doing my google search, I saw a lot of stories from people whose entire blogs were deleted, and their posts were gone.

Just...gone.

I can't imagine what that would feel like. Well ok, I can, and it would be awful.

I put my heart into this blog. It's the closest thing to a journal I will ever have. I have spent so many hours typing out my thoughts, tweaking the wording, reading your comments. And if that was just gone, it would be heartbreaking.

It might seem silly to be so attached to a website, but I'm sure my blogging friends understand what I'm saying.

For the rest of you? Imagine waking up one morning, and not being able to find your puppy. Someone stole him while you weren't looking, and there isn't even a ransom note. For all you know, he's being kept in the back of a Filipino restaurant, and the customers are getting hungry.

It's just like that. Only, you know, less bloody.

This is why I will be downloading my blog more regularly.

Also? Why I love my sister (she's useful).

So if you tried to visit last night/this morning, I am sorry you were redirected. But hey, it could have been worse, right? The site it went to was pretty tame. No naked grandma's named Bambi, crocheting seductively.

Hi Helena - I wanted to read a few of your posts but your site was sending me all over the place. I thought it was my computer. But it seems to be fine now so I am going to check out some of your posts!

Doood. There are sneaky widgets that can hack my site? WTH? You are a badass for figuring that out. And, now I'm terrified! The Internet scares me in a million and one ways. But I love it nonetheless. ; )

This is an awesome reminder that I really need to start backing up ALL my files. Yikes, that's scary but good for you for being able to troubleshoot. I think I would scream bloody murder while pulling out large chunks of hair from my head. Both effective coping mechanisms, but I would much rather have your cool as a cucumber approach :)

Just backed up my blog. I use Wordpress.com and all I had to do was go to Dashboard>Tools>Export and it will export an XML file: "This format, which we call WordPress eXtended RSS or WXR, will contain your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags. Once you’ve saved the download file, you can use the Import function on another WordPress site to import this site."

It doesn't say anything about images, but those should be on your hard drive anyway.

That exact malware (or whatever it is) attacked my travel website a few months ago. I didn't think to do what you did, and it took my website designer hours to get all the bad code out of my site. I feel your pain.

Well, hi. I'm Helena. I grew up on a blueberry farm in Western Michigan. My days were spent reading on the beach in the summer, and reading in my bedroom under a quilt in the chilly Michigan winter. I moved out to Utah to go to school, and to get away from my family. You know, typical angsty teenager stuff. While out there, I met this guy named Kurt, who was also from Michigan. But we were just friends.

Flash forward 9 years. We got married, and then we moved to Pittsburgh so he could go to Dental School. What can I say, the guy likes teeth. Now we have a little girl, a baby boy, two little turtles, and a whole new adventure ahead of us. Welcome to my life.